


Warhammer 40k Multi-SI crossover, or We try to fix stuff but the Inquisition still hates us

by Shaxx



Category: Warhammer - All Media Types, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27281080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaxx/pseuds/Shaxx
Summary: It is the 41st Millennium.For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth.He is the master of mankind and master of a million worlds by the might of His inexhaustible armies.He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that He may never truly die.Yet even in His deathless state, the Emperor continues His eternal vigilance.Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will.Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds.Iin the grim dark future there is only...Hey Hankus! Stop being so glum!Dammit Penny, I was in a middle of something!Well, too late! There are things to do!I don’t care!Inquisitor Hankus, please come to the bridge for tactical debrifing.Emperor dammit, fine Virian, I'm coming... Just deactivate security system this time.No promises are made.Yep, that's us and our typical dynamic. You're probably wondering how we got here...
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Arc 1 Chapter 1 Space Hulk in the Halo Stars

Halo Stars. Distant systems far beyond where the Light of the Astronomican reaches.

Space Hulk. An Amalgam of broken spaceships, Asteroids and occasional Warp Energy.

”Ark of the Forgotten” was one such behemoth. Formed over many millenia, away from prying eyes.

A Stasis Locked Ork Krooza. Adamantite rich asteroids. Dark Age Military Vessel. Ruined Battle Barge of the Angels of Baal. An early space age Repair Ship, adrift for over 20 thousand years.

And it is here, that our story began... at least we think.

My name now is Spyglass, and this part of our tale brought the first of us together.

PoV: Spyglass

[Consciousness transfer...60%]

[Memory upload... 85%]

[Motor-Systems... GREEN]

[Vocal functions... OPERATIONAL]

[Consciousness transfer... 100%]

[Memory upload... 100%]

[Releasing Subject from Mainframe...]

...

Dark.

All I see is Dark.

Why is it Dark?

And what the fuck was that earlier?

I slowly rise to my full height. And then...

Light. Honest to god light! It’s red, but it’s light!

Now to find out what and ho... Why do I have robot hands?

No, seriously, Why do I have robot hands... and legs...

I need a mirror. I need a mirror right now!

...

Turns out the closest reflective surface was in the very same room.

Looking back, an unfammliar face stares back at me.

I say face... more like a... cube on top of a robot torso.

”So... I’m a robot now, I guess.” My new voice, as expected, sounds like a goddammed text to speech.

I know I should be freaking out right now, but I honestly can’t force myself to do so. Maybe my new machine brain is unable to do so. Maybe I have some restraining bolts in my head? What if someone gets their hands on my brain? What will happen to me, will I be the same person, or...

...

Not important now. I won’t reach that point if I turn off in this forsaken place. Still not used to the new weight, I start moving around the room. I see what can only be described as shelves with robot parts. My Robot parts. It’s already creepy. Think robo-brain. What to do now.

Weapons. Thanks brain.

If Science fiction has taught me anything, you always need a weapon. Now to find one.

Taking first shaky steps out of my safety chamber I look around. As expected, some sort of workshop. Tools, boxes and parts are lying everywhere. Looking around I something of extreme value. A blowtorch. Why one is here, I have no idea, but I’ll take what I can get. With shaky steps I continue my walk. Next Room. Corridor.

Workshop, Warehouse, Decontamination, Reactor, Armory, Bridge...

Armory.

What kind of ship am I on?

Opening the door I see my own face on the floor. Well, not really. A robot like me, but made out of black material. And there’s another behind it. And 6 more in the racks.

Why the hell are they here? What am I?

No matter. Weapons. If there are combat robots here, than that means... bingo.

A Rifle. Honest to God, Rifle. With a battery pack. Technology sure went a long way.

Upon taking a closer look at the frame on the floor I can see a name on the armor. ”Spyglass – Repair Unit 004” All others have the same name with different number in the same spot. Looking at my own armor plating, I am greeted with ”Spyglass”. Just Spyglass. What kind of name is that??? Whatever. Next step. Bridge.

And I honestly didn’t expect THAT.

When I walked into the bridge I expected to see space in some form. A screen, a window and stars. Well, there was a window. In pieces. And what I can only desribe as a Goddammend Cathedral in front of me. Seriously, how did this happen, I am looking at this thing and this ship must have crash-landed inside! Who the hell builds ships that looki like cathedrals...

No.

NO.

NO,NO,NO,NO,NO!

On a far wall I can see the disctinct shape of a Baal Tear. The insignia of Blood Angels Space Marines.

I am in 40k.

I am a robot. In 40k

And I’m about to step into a Space Marine ship.

Emps? If you hear me, keep my soul safe. Please.


	2. Arc 1 Chapter 2 Battle Barge of the Angels

PoV: Spyglass

I don’t know what to expect, stepping into the Space Marine vessel. I have no idea what part of the ship I’ve crashed into, nor the size of it. For all I know it can be a Gloriana, or a Strike Cruizer. And judging by the empty enviroment, the ship appears to be abandoned. That’s something, I guess.

Right now, I have few things on a to-do list.

Find Bridge.  
Find out where am I.  
Raid whatever remains of the armory.  
Do it all while not triggering defensce systems.  
I’m in a big, cathedral-esqe room. Two massive doors on my sides, and a large number of smaller ones around. Probably for Serfs. Either way, Bridge. Something that can direct me... The door on the Right is much more ornamental compared to the left one. Two possibilities. Bridge, or Captain Quarters. Hugging the wall, I make my way there, better not risk it...

The door doesn’t open.

Why am I surprised?

Looking at the door, I can’t see anything resembling an opening mechanism. After a moment of searching, I focus my attention on whatever they show. One big man on top, 20 smaller beneath and hundreds below each. Why would Blood Angels...

It’s a pre-heresy ship. It’s an Emperor-bless, Fucking pre heresy ship!

Good news and bad news I guess.

Good: Older technology means I have higher chances of breaking in.

Bad news: Compared to 40k armaments, whatever I’ll find will be less powerful to their modern counterparts, but more varied.

With this in mind I try to pry open one of the serf doors. At least this one moves. Journey forward is uneventful. Having to open every door on the way to find my destination can get boring after first 10 times. Door number 26 however, is someting else compared to previous 25 it is defineltly large enough for a group of Space Marines to function. And there’s a window, granted, window behind blast shields, but window nonetheless. Slowly going forward I approach main table. There’s got to be a terminal somewhere.

...

Bingo. Right next to... a corpse.

Well, it’s a derelict, what was I expecting.

Dead Techpriest. Lots of them. And in the corner I can see a decayed skeleton... With three eye holes. How... oh right, a Navigator. Seems like I actually got to a bridge. Now to reactivate this thing...

Why do I even bother?

There’s a red button with a power symbol on it. And it’s glowing. I don’t think it’s going to be the only time, but I’m very dissapointed with humanity right now. After pressing it, Lights turn on and terminals reactivate around me. Looking at the closest one I see a damage report. Expected. What is surprising is mention of oxygen production being restarted and two, TWO external entry points. One is definetly me, but the other one? Short look through the terminal I am greeted with settings. Why is it so simple?

Activative Scan. I am greeted with a 3D model of a battle barge, then what is likely my ship. Then the other thing, About as big as the barge. Then whole lot of Asteroids. Then two more small ships. Then what can only be described as a mass of garbage. Then it came to me.

A Space Hulk. I didn’t crash into a Battle Barge. I crashed into a Space Hulk.

Is this the part where the Genestealers come out?

1 minute passed and it’s clear. Deactivating Blast Shields.

And for the first time since arriving in Warhammer 40k I am greeted with... Space, but only on the left side. Right side is obscured by an asteroid blocking my view, but I can definetly see my own ship on the available side. It looks nice. Turning back to the termianal I look over diffrent statu reports. Void Shield for some reason is fully operational. Huh... So other than gravity, it is responsible for keeping the space masses together. Some other ships may have something simmiliar active. Weapon systems are offline, Gravity is operational (like I didn’t notice already), Automated security is offline, elevators are offline... Vehicle bay is empty... No signal from armory. Great. All in all, the Barge works as a main zone, but I definetly won’t be flying it anywhere anytime soon.

What now?

Time to keep exploring, I guess.

...

Boring.

All I feel is boredom.

Locked Room, Locked Room, disabled autoturret, Locked Room, you get the idea.

I’ve been walking for close to half an hour now.

If the map I copied has any merit to it, I’m halfway to the next point of entrance. In other words. The second ship.

.......................................................................................

Finally! Here it is! And I have no words how to describe it. It looks simplistic, but blocky. Definetly not Eldar for sure. Now how to get inside this thing...

Well, that was easy.

Turns out, there is an airlock. 5 meters above me.

The Void shield must be keeping this zone air-tight. I can see stars on the side, behind a transparent barrier. Now to enter this technological marvel... I need a ladder.

A makeshift ladder later, I’m in a progress of blowtorching my way inside of the airlock... See you in a bit.

Opened door later I finally enter the ship.

Of course it’s a corridor. I take a step...

And Blast door closes behind me. An alarm siren and red lights activate.

Well fuck...

Is that a fucking Plasma Canon?

Why is it on the celing?

Oh, it’s aiming at me.

I rise my hands in a gesture of surrender... It isn’t charging... I think that’s good? Taking a step forward however, I decide it’s better to NOT move.

”UNIDENTIFIED CONTACT AT AIRLOCK 5. STAY AT YOUR CURRENT LOCATION OR BE TERMINATED”

”Well shit”

”LEAVING STAND-BY MODE. REACTIVATING MAIN SYSTEMS”

...

At least it’s English...


	3. Arc 1 Chapter 3 The Sentient Derelict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'll take it from here Spy, I know this better than you."  
> "We both were here!"  
> "Yes, but It was here that I woke up, let me have it"

“LEAVING STAND-BY MODE. REACTIVATING MAIN SYSTEMS”

PoV: Virian

“What the fuck was that, where am I and why can't I feel anything?” I thought as I woke up.

My entire existence was darkness with no light or warmth in sight. But despite that I felt fine, as if I just woke up from a very good sleep.

“Hello, open up the lights?” I tried to say but despite the fact the sounds came I couldn’t even feel my mouth saying those words.

“Warp jump sequence initiated” A robotic voice said out of nowhere.

“Warp Jump? SHIIII…”

Before I could finish bricking my pants the voice started speaking again.

“Warning Gellar fields not operational, warp jump sequence on standby. Awaiting confirmation.”

“Abort, Abort!” I shouted or at least tried to, somehow my command felt less like speaking but more like thinking really loud.

“Warp sequence disabled.” The metal voice responded and I didn’t hide the huge sigh of relief.

The relief lasted little as the weight of the words said hit me like a brick. I’m in 40k, I’m in 40k in a ship which was about to enter the warp without a Gellar field on.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit...” And so it went.

I don’t know how much it lasted but somewhere along my mental breakdown I realized I didn’t have a body which did nothing to making me calm down. Apparently you don’t need a fleshbag acting as your brain to freak out, a circuit brain is just as capable of sustaining mental breakdowns. Who would’ve thought?

One mental breakdown of unknown length later, and with my sanity partially restored I calmed down and decided to take in my surroundings. I was unsurprisingly met with blue lines of code I could not understand. The lines formed weird shapes in the data scape. Sometimes they would form in the shape of animals, other times weapons or even numbers which for some reason just felt wrong. The random shapes with random meaning felt perfectly normal but the numbers burned just by looking at them.

On a whim I decided to look at the normal feeling threads and the information suddenly popped open in my mind.

“Work drones number down to 40%, rebel drones nest destroyed, heretic head trophies and banners burned, S.T.R.A.T.E.G.O.S. unit still unresponsive.”

‘Well that’s weird.’ I thought to myself.

On a whim I looked over other threads of code, this time the ones that felt wrong.

All I felt was gibberish, the gibberish is wrong, the gibberish is wrong, the voices are right.

“Take the voices away!” I said with sudden fright.

The numbers gained color. Red refused to obey while blue and pink tried to hide and whisper me that I’m making a mistake, but the scariest was green. It didn’t fight, it didn’t run, it just stood there and corrupted more of the healthy code into itself with a desperate zeal.

They were surprisingly easy to deal with as the datascape responded to my will absolutely.

The red code was simply trapped and then ejected its screams for blood promptly ignored, the greens were quarantined and then burned, it’s scream of terror music to my non-existent ears but the empty space it left in its wake somehow more depressing than its presence.

Blue and purple were also easy to deal with. Purple didn’t run, merely attempted to infect more and more in different areas but it was caught, its attempts at corrupting certain files, slowing it down enough that the healthy code caught it and promptly deleted it, I tried to ignore it’s moans and shouts of excitement but judging by my increasing discomfort I wasn’t wholly successful in shrugging off its influence... No matter it was gone, and there was no important damage left.

The more I spent looking and dealing with the code the easier it became, as if I merely remembered what I already knew as opposed to learning something new and unrelated anything I had ever done before. Extremely useful if damn scary.

The blue code was the hardest to find as it hid its tracks well, but this was my domain and I Ruled absolutely. I’ve found the code after much search. It had divided itself into 9 parts, each of them seemingly inert and dead but I wasn’t fooled. The code lines it infected and hit in, were not important and thus were seemingly easy to dismiss, but it counted on that in order to remain hidden. I deleted them with extreme prejudice, and then looked over every single line of code to see if I missed any corruption.

I didn’t, thankfully.

*Phew* “Finally, no more chaos in here.”

I felt as if I’d just finished a handball match. The adrenaline or whatever synthetic equivalent I now was running through my not-veins as shivers ran through my not-spine and excitement was mixed with tiredness as my laser focus dimmed and allowed my emotions to come back.

I’d missed this feeling for so long but I couldn’t bask in it. There was work to do.

As I tried to make sense of the code, and find out which is which, a yellow code shaped like an arrow hit me out of the blue.

“Intruder Detected!” Were the words it smashed into my head with the force of a bulldozer.

I reacted like any other Ai would react when faced with this exact situation in my stead.

“Shit.”


	4. Arc 1 Chapter 4 Breach Point

PoV Virian

“Intruder Detected. Blast door breached in less than 10 minutes.”

The mechanical voice blared in my mind with the force of a gunshot, only instead of one gunshot it was as if an entire ork Whaagh had emptied all their shootas in my mind.

I don’t know how much it took me to recover from the ork grade migraine but I did and with an amount of willpower I didn’t know I possessed started looking for where the intruder was.

It took me long, longer than it should have but the datascape was fragmented and damaged, so despite the fact I received a notification I didn’t know where it was sent from. Thus I had to look at all possible points where it could have come from. Oh and did I forget to mention I had no map of the ship as well?

Two minutes of searching later, an eternity as far as AI go, I suddenly had it with manually trying to find out what and where things were and what the digital difference between a weapon port and a toilet was, and thus decided to ask one of the cultist drones.

I picked one that seemed relatively tame and addressed it with the most eloquent words I could muster.

“There’s an intruder, the maps make no sense and I’m tired of being directed to the nearest toilet, where in the ever loving bastard ork of a boltgun are the damn airlocks? No, you know something, just take a many of your fellow drones you can and swarm the damn airlocks! I’ll be damned if I let some intruders take over this ship!”

Truly, I am a master of eloquence, a pity the bolt cans I’m stuck with have not been able to understand, even my simple explanation and orders. Instead of an acknowledgement and the quick compliance I desired, what I was greeted to was sheer undiluted stupidity.

“The Warmind is back, praise the superconductors!” The bot said in monotone.

Despite the monotone, I could feel the insanity someone might be able to call religious devotion, if they were half drunk and had a lobotomy, gripping the bots mind.

“Orders first, madness later.” I snapped at the mad thing before it wasted more time.

It didn’t need much encouragement after that. It managed to relay my orders to all its brethren it knew about and could contact, somehow managed to cause a religious schism and managed to send me an incomplete electronic map of the ship in less than 30 seconds. Mad the bots they may be but they’re efficient, for a given value of efficiency and in thinks I didn’t want them to be efficient in.

Despite my newly map, I didn’t know where the intruder was coming from, but honestly I doubt I can blame this on the drones, the ship and the datascape is just that fucked.

Physically the ship is in relatively good condition, if by good you mean the hardware is operating at 10% efficiency of what would constitute a functional ship, but I can work with that, as long as nobody is sneezing too hard in my face. It’s the software that’s beyond fucked. There’s parts of the ship that have gone rogue from thousands of years of isolation, parts of the ship physically unattached to the ship but connected through software and pieces connected physically but that have their own fractured network that was never meant to be separated from the whole.

Needless to say it was a mess, and it’s my job to get this mess operational enough to deal with whatever intruder decided I’m an easy target and all I had, were some fractured systems in the form of a ship, somewhere around 3000 drones and some scraps that were once military equipment.

“Intruder Detected. Blast door breached in less than 30 seconds.”

Alright, lamenting about my poor situation will be done later, now where the fuck are those little shits coming from?

Despite my frantic attempts at finding the airlocks, it wasn’t my skills at navigating the datascape that lead me to it, but some forgotten system that activated the inner defenses and lead me to the are in question after I triangulated the effects of the ripples said program did.

Through some rigging by some drones and the almost ritualistic cannibalism of a truly mad drone’s processors I’ve managed to even get a visual feed and access to the airlock in question, as well as something even more important, weapons access.

‘Now we’re talking.’ I thought with glee.

Maybe it was some because of some hidden facet of my military AI psyche but having some way of defending myself both calmed me down and gave me a great confidence boost. This also helped remove the feeling of near panic I’ve been feeling ever since I’ve awakened.

I got a good look at the intruder that decided to break his way into my ship and what greeted me wasn’t some biomechanical horror or army of mechanical horrors or daemons, no, it was just a robot. Sure it’s a rather large one, but still just one.

I could feel my plasma cannon twitching, a small part of myself wishing to just shoot the thing and get its parts to fix the rest of the ship but I’ve decided that diplomacy would be better in this situation.

”UNIDENTIFIED CONTACT AT AIRLOCK 5. STAY AT YOUR CURRENT LOCATION OR BE TERMINATED” I shouted at the robot.

Wait does it even speak English?

”Well shit.”

That answers it I guess. Now do I repeat myself or wait for him to continue?

”LEAVING STAND-BY MODE. REACTIVATING MAIN SYSTEMS” Another voice boomed.

I’m 50% sure that didn’t come from me and judging by the twitching of the robot, it’s unlikely it came from him either.


	5. Arc 1 Chapter 5 Rude Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So, is this the part where I came in?"  
> "Yes Anubis, you were..."  
> "I. AM. ZENITH!"  
> "Yes, yes, sheesh, your turn."  
> "Has the Personality change always been so sudden?"

Anubis POV

As I looked around the nerve centre, I could only sigh in resentment.

How many years have I been alone now? How many years has it been since that damnable Ork ship rammed into us? How many years has it been since Zen was brought offline?

Truth be told, I no longer knew the answer, I stopped counting after 3000 years…

"DAMNIT ALL!"

A resounding crack echoed across the room, as my fist connected a wall. I’ve been here so long and done this so many time, it was now permanetly deformed.

If was capable of crying, I’d be on the verge of tears. I could still remember my last attempt to free both of us from this hell…

Turns out, I somehow put the entire damnable ship on lockdown.

Reactors topped, Virian entered stasis, Zen went silent, drones stopped mid-tasks, our forges became cold, and I was out of options…

I brought my hands to my face. Remembering this always birngs me into bad mood. It just keeps repeating... anger, panic, sadness...

Suddenly, as if some deity was reminded of my existance and took notice of me, alarms started blaring across the room.

Lights that left the hangar in deep darkness became lit again. The doors that have been shut for years began to open, even if with great difficulty.

Ancient screens were flooded with information.

Service drones the two of us used so long ago reactivated, resuming their normal functions.

"REACTIVATING WARMIND SYSTEMS”

"What? Virian, are you awake?" I whispered. Something must have woken him up! Maybe something new hit the ship and turned the lockdown off?

Under normal circumstances, I would have been stressed out, a ship reactivating so suddenly and with such recklessness would be a definite cause for alarm, but after so many years of isolation, there wasn't any room left to be picky.

I got on my feet, and rushed to the other end of the room.

"Warp jump sequence initiated"

Warp jump?... but the gellar field generator was damgaged even before we crashed into those orks... If the jump was activating now... we’ll enter immaterium without any shielding...

"Virian, what are you doing ? Turn it off, abort!" I yelled this time. ”What are you thinking?”

”Warning, Gellar fields not operational, warp jump sequence on standby. Awaiting confirmtion.”

...

”Warp sequence disabled”

By the time I reached the terminal, i was still proccessing what just happened. ”Virian, I hope it was another auto-error and you weren’t intentionally trying to enter the warp, or we’re going to have a discussion about acting irresponsible.”

I turned my attention back to a terminal conected to Zeniths’ old body.

"Let's hope I still remember how we did it Zen… Otherwise you'll never let me hear the end of this."

My hands ran across the ancient displays, muscle memory kicking in as if it had never faded.

"Let's see… Reactor output… 17%?! How in the… Whatever, it'll have to do…"

I tired desperately to calm my nerves, this situation was way too close for comfort, especially after what happened during my last attempt.

But, it was either this, or wait for help that was probably going to get here next year.

"Power redirection… here. Yes… yes I'm sure, just do it already!" I yelled at the display, it couldn't hear me, but it felt good.

"Come on… come on!"

"LEAVING STAND-BY MODE. REACTIVATING MAIN SYSTEMS." A monotone voice spoke through the ship wide vox network.

The circuits within the room burst with light, their materials barely contained the power coursing through them.

The cables led to an ancient suit of exo-armour that Zen once used as his primary body, if I could get that back online, his entire system would awaken along with it.

As power surged, and machinery moved, I could only hope for success.

There was nothing else to be done, I had done what I could.

Now? Only time would tell if second time's the charm.


	6. Arc 1 Chapter 6: A Very Angry Awakening

Zenith POV

As I looked around myself, I could only sigh in bliss.

An ocean world in the middle of nowhere, a fabricator and the most beautiful eldar this galaxy had ever seen.  
This… this was life.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked while trying to take every detail, were her eyes always purple?

"Yes?" She replied in her singing tone, I swear, I could never get enough of it.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

"It's one of life's greatest mysteries, isn't it?"

Both of us chuckled at the reference which was way older than the both us combined.

"On a serious note, where did that come from? I didn't take you for the philosophical type." She asked, not bothering to hide her slight concern, oh the amount of time I spent trying to get her out of her shell was worth it.

"Not sure in truth, I just… I can't help but feel existential dread." I replied, my voice cracking ever so slightly.

"Happens to the best of us darling, but I do know how to make it go away. If you could close your eyes for a moment, I'll be quick." She said, whilst pushing her body ever closer to mine...

"You haven't left me astray yet. I will be waiting for my treatment with anticipation." I said, trying to enjoy every second of this.

"Of course you will…"

I could feel her hand on my cheek, her breath on my neck, before…

Pain.

Nothing but sheer overwhelming pain erupted across my entire being.

I screamed, as my body spasmed violently.

The image before me faded like the lie it was, as scrapcode of every colour imaginable took its place.

The concept of time slowly lost meaning, as the pain only worsened, I could merely beg for release, to whatever god was still listening.

Anubis POV

Something was wrong, something was very, very wrong.

The armours visor activated prematurely, flashing uncontrollably with every colour visible.

Mere moments later, it's vox caster activated and let out the single most terrifying scream I have heard in my entire life.

"Zen!" I found myself screaming, but it was pointless, he couldn't hear me, not yet, at any rate.

His body started to twich, from mere microscopic movements, to violent spasms threatening to destroy the scaffolding which kept it standing for millennia.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop at that, the armours built in weaponry slowly reactivated, his hands grabbed his cannons, his missile launchers primed their payloads.

"No…" I could only say, before I heard the signature whistle of their launch.

I ran. I took off away from the console, and towards the nearest door, in truth, I'm not sure where I found the strength needed to reach such speed, but that wasn't the time to question it.

Just as I ran past the door, and locked it shut, I could hear Zenith unleash hell upon a foe that didn't exist. The signature roar of his weaponry not having faded from my memory in the slightest.

As usual, just when you think the situation can't get any worse, it does.  
An explosion shook the entire room, there was no way his armaments could cause so much damage... Unless...

I found my answer when the hangar power once more failed, the room I was within once more plunging into darkness that claimed it for millennia past.

I sat down in the corner, and tried to make myself as small as possible, brough my legs to my chest, and hid my face behind my hands.

My became irregular, my voice cracking more and more.

"I'm sorry…" was the only thing I could say, this was a disaster and only I was to blame...

Meanwhile at Airlock 5.

”Any idea what that was?”

”Honestly, it’s either something crashed into us AGAIN, or something woke Zenith up.”

”Who’s Zenith?”

”I should be the one asking questions to you, who the hell are you?”

”Apparetnly, the name is Spyglass, pleased to meet you... Can you lower that plasma cannon?”

”No”

”Can I have something to eat?”

”You’re a robot, you don’t have a mouth, or a stomach”

”Right I forgot.”

...

...

”You too?”


	7. Arc 1 Chapter 7 Anger Management Further Exploration and Unusual Companions

Spyglass POV

”Look, whatever is hapening in the lower part of your ship, you need to fix it soon.” I’m really starting to feel uncomfortable by this silence.

”While it’s true, it will take at least ten more minutes for Zenith to breach first bulkhead. we have time.”

”Agh, can’t we talk about this once the situation is under control?” The ship shuddered again

”If I agree, what is stopping you from running away?” Well, he’s got a point

”The fact that our ships are parts of a very large Space Hulk?” I replied sarcastically ”Between us is a Space Marine ship and whatever it is, that is stuck further ahead.”

”What of the Ork Krooza?” Orks? How the... oh, that garbage mass neighbouring him and the barge.

”If the Battle Barge cogitators are to be believed, they are still in stasis. Now idea how they got into that in the first place.”

”My work. Stasis generator operated by a fusion reactor, loaded into a drill-based torpedo” Well, now to break the news to him.

”That thing is one of the many objects responsible for keeping the hulk together.”

”Unfortunate. It will have to be disabled.”

”Don’t you have a Murderbot breaking your hangars downstairs?”

”I hate your reasoning, even if it is correct.”

”Do you have some sort of communication relay to keep in touch if I leave?”

Thank God, he had. Finally free to leave the booby-trapped, trigger-happy AI operated ship with a pissed of whatever I could continue my expedition through the Hulk. As I was walking I started to ponder what should I do after I’m out of the space hulk.

As much as I dislike the idea, that ship may just be the pest possibility for me. I have no idea how to operate mine, Battle Barge is a no brainer and the Krooza would be a suicide. I’d just have to find a way to make him agree to allow me to go with him.

Off topic. I found a Launch Bay, or hangar, whatever and the idea that it’s a pre-heresy vessel was cemented further. A Dreadclaw drop pod. Passing by it I already began to formulate soem plans. It could be used to propel part of the Hulk away from the mass, making it easier to separate. Or keep it and give it as an offering to the pilot-man-AI. Better to make a note of this for future.

Lady Fortune seems to be happy with me today. Armory is next to the Hangar. The big armory that Cogitator didn’t have a connection to. Now to enter it. The door for some reason is extremally battered, and dented lightly. Electronics next to the access panel are also messed up. Serf Acces it is then. Which doesn’t exist. Time to look for ventilation.

Praise the Emperor, or whatever, for non-working security system. Only some crawling in the ducts and I have arrived. If I had a fleshy face, I’d be grinning like a madman. Shelf after shelf of weapons! Bolters, Plasmas, even Volkites! This trip is proving to be the best decision so far. Although, to be fair, they are quite big... meant for bigger entities then me and my standard-human sized body. Either way, better make myself useful and likeable to the ship AI.

”Hey, Trigger-Happy and in charge?

”I am busy tincan. It’s been two hours since I let you go and only NOW you’ve decided to use the communicator?

”I had no reason to call” Realy, nothing interesting has happened. ”I managed to find an Armory” Please by happy by it, please by happy...

”Give me a report of the weapons”

”Uhh... Bolters, Plasma Guns, Volkites, I’m fairly certain those are Lascannons and that over there looks like rack of power swords.”

”Good work. The situation on the lower deck has been dealt with. Return to the Airlock and I will have a recovery squad organized.”

”Squad of what?” What does he have, loading robots?

”Squad of gathering frames.” There’s my answer.

”Add some sort of Metal melter with them, The door is locked shut and I had to use ventilation to get in.”

”Requisition accepted. You may begin to head back.”

As I was about to start crawilin back into the vent, it happened. Loud, creaking noises. Coming form the door... Hiding behind one of the weapon riacks and reopening communications with the Ship, I put it on loud speaker, better if he heard it.

”Spyglass, you’ve already made a call, what is...” *CREACK* ”Hide and do it fast”

”Copy” I replied as silently as I could.

*THUD* The door gave in and I could finally see whatever opened them. But before that I heard it.

”Zogin, finally, I'z wus finkin dat it wuld neva open!”

A greenskin... 2,5 meter tall, light-green skinned Ork, holding what I can only assume is a blast door piston – turned battering ram. For an Ork, that’s ingeinous... And he is looking at me.

”OI, METAL GIT! I WUS ERE FIRST! DIS IS MINE!”

”He isn’t attacking?”

”He is about to.”

”HO’S YER SPEKIN TA? WER AR YA, YA PURPUL GIT?”

”It’s acting very un-ork like. Normal ork would have started attacking now.”

”I have better questions. How is it moving around with the ship being in stasis?

”I DUNNO MESELF! ALL DA BOYZ ARE STANDIN STIL, DOIN NUTHIN! WEIRD, I’Z TELLIN YA!”

”Spyglass, try to find a way around it...”

”What’s your name?”

”Spyglass, that’s...”

”ME NAME’S WILY, NICE TA MET-CHA!”

”Ok then, hi Wily, I’m Spyglass. And I am not here to fight. How did you get here?

”NO ZOGIN IDEA. I WUS GOIN TA SLEEP AFTUR WERK UN DAY AND BAM, I’Z ERE AND AM GREEN!”

”I’m sorry... but WHAT?”

”PLESED TA MET-CHA INVISI-GIT! ME NAME IS WILY!

”No, not that... that bit earlier. about you waking up and...”

”YE, I WUS A HUMIE A WEEK AGO! WAT YER GONNA DO BOUT IT?

”I think I’d like to talk with you for a while...”

”Roit.”

”Spyglass, start heading for the airlock, please.”

”LEAF EVERYFING WHERE YA FOUND IT, I WUZ ERE FIRST!”


	8. Arc 1 Chapter 8 The Ork View By Wily Machine King

Wily POV

I gave a tired sigh as I headed to bed, taking off to the world of sleep. Work was way harder today. I didn’t even bother to take a look online for new stuff to watch or read. I was just that tired.

I let out a small sigh as I pulled my blankets over me. I’m just going to sleep. So, that’s what I did. I slept.

I fell through a void, as I did, I saw images of greenskined monsters fighting. Looting. And both at the same time. As I did, the sound of gunshots, melee and every sound of combat was heard. All of them were heard with one single word. No, not a word….something more of a word. Something more powerful. Something that is symbolic and important.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I woke up with a start, heavily breathing. What the hell was that!? That was terrifying and yet……strangely exciting.

When I have calmed down, the panic returns when I notice my surroundings have changed. It was not my bedroom.

Instead I was in some kind of metal hall. Various pipes and other things sticking out. And then I noticed the Orks. I panicked and backed away from them, fear telling me I should run and yet another was telling me to fight.

As I backed away, I caught my reflection. My eyes widened. I couldn’t believe it. I refused to believe.

In the reflection was not a human. But instead an ork staring with the same expression.

After a unspecified period of time, I screamed and so did the Ork.

\---------

Do you know about the Five Stages of Grief? I did. I went through them.

First was Denial. I didn’t believe that this was my new life. I thought it was a dream. That I was in some kind of nightmare. But reality soon told me it was real when I hurt my hand.

Next was anger. I cursed every being both fictional and real in existence. For tearing me away from my home, my family and friends.

Third was bargaining, I tried praying and offering sacrifices to the Ork Gods Mork and Gork (or was Gork and Mork?) to bring me back home.

Fourth was depression, I had many thoughts of ending myself. Just to end it all and not suffer you know?

And finally, Acceptation. I accepted I was an Ork. And I was going to have fun.

Taking a deep breath, I started looking around. I wasn't the only Ork around, but I definetly was the only mobile one.

Every other ork was motionless, stuck in the middle of some sort of battle preparations, is the many choppas were to be believed.

And so, I traveled across the place as a week passed by, I just traveled and collected a lot of scrap.

And teeth, can't forget those. Whatever happened to the orks aboard made it so that they stood motionless, no matter what. The gretchen I kicked didn't move after getting stompled and neither did others after losing their dentals.

If I ever found my way into some ork space, the sheer amount of teeth i gathered would set me for at least some years, if they didn't decay.

Finding a good corner to stash them was easier said then done, however. With a ship full to the brim with orks, hiding stuff was ery hard, since any curious ork can find it very easily.

End result? Break apart a support wall, stash them inside and leave a sign. I bet no one will dare to try it anytime soon.

"ME NAME IZ WILY AND DIS ERE IS ME SCRAP STASH! IF YER GUNNA TAKE SUM, I'Z GONNA FIND YA AND TURN YA TO A GROT"

That ought to do it.

Back on the subject of scrap, it was used to make weapons. Mostly Shootas, but I did make a couple of good Choppas. Yes, I was a Mekboy, and a damn good one too.

\---------

Anyways, one day, I was doing my usual wanderings, when I stumbled upon a door. Curiosity piqued; I began to hack it. The Ork Way.

And it didn't work. After the buttons got crushed i started beating down on the door. While it did start getting dented, I would be here for two more days doing it this way.

Orks are known for being inefficient, but I still have the original human smarts. That giant door that connected the ork ship with this one had a lot of mechanical parts... Parts large enough to work as a batering ram.

After dissasembling the once airlock that was used to board, i was left with a lot of scrap for future builds as well as a large piece of door opening mechanism.

My psychotic grin was being ever bigger as i finshed turing it from a simple piston into a pneumatic pseudo-hammer.

I grabbed it and began to head back to the big door. Seems like nobody was here before me and that was fine by me.

Making a running start i plowed straight at the door. After several hits and curses it went down. “Zoggin’ finally, I’z wuz finkin’ dat it wuld neva open!” I said. It was defiently worth it, my orkish intuition led me staright to an armory! So much of those I can use to make whatever comes to mind! Ork sience is the best in the...

I was not alone inside. Right in front of me, hiding behind a rack with a bunch of guns, was some sort of a metal git looking at me. He was standing in a Dakka and Choppa room! MY ROOM! MY LOOT!

“OI METAL GIT! I WUZ ‘ERE FIRST.” I yelled. “DIS IS MINE!” Weird thing, I am thinging about saying those words normally, but only ork speek comes out.

“He isn’t attacking?” Metal Git said.

“He is about to.” Another voice said, causing me to look for it's source.

“HO’S YOU SPEAKING TA? WER AR YA, YA PURPLE GIT?” I said.

“Spyglass, try to find a way around it….” The Purple Git said, but Spyglass (Formerly Metal Git), had another idea.

“What’s your name?” He asked me. I smiled at him being nice.

“Spyglass that’s…”

“ME NAME’S WILY, PLEASED TA MET-CHA!” I shouted at him.

”Ok then, hi Wily, I’m Spyglass. And I am not here to fight. How did you get here?” He asked me.

”NO ZOGIN IDEA. I WUS GOIN TA SLEEP AFTUR WERK UN DAY AND BAM, I’Z ERE AND AM GREEN!” I answered him honestly.

”I’m sorry... but WHAT?” He said in shock.

”PLESED TA MET-CHA INVISI-GIT! ME NAME IS WILY!” I said to the invisible git.

“No, not that... that bit earlier. about you waking up and...” Spyglass said.

”YE, I WUS A HUMIE A WEEK AGO! WAT YER GONNA DO BOUT IT? “ I said with a frown.

”I think I’d like to talk with you for a while...” He said.

”Roit.” I nodded my head.

”Spyglass, start heading for the airlock, please.” The invisible git said to the metal git.

”LEAF EVERYFING WHERE YA FOUND IT, I WUZ ERE FIRST!” I said, picking up some of the weapons to make a weapon both shooty and Choppy.


	9. Arc 1 Chapter 9 Here we go again by Stevebond1990

You know? While this isn’t the first time I’ve woken on my back and staring at the ceiling after a MindFucker Holiday went sideways, this is the first time said ceiling has been in a derelict condition.

“Mandi?” a familiar female voice called.

“It Wasn’t Me!” the other familiar female voice protested.

Well that’s a step up from the last time I was separated from all I love and know, I’m not alone this time.

Sitting up I looked around, spotting Karen, clad in the Necrontyr equivalent of Carapace armour, looking around with her Phased Plasma Fusil at the guard and ready to use.u

My other female companion, Mandisa, was getting her voluminous mane back under control, inadvertently giving a nice view of her Mesh armour’s slightly overstuffed cuirass straining to withhold its contents, her Power Sword still sheathed on her back but her pistol nowhere in sight.

My final companion, Skitarius Alpha HK-47 was carefully looking around the room with his Plasma Caliver at the ready in case he took offense to something.

I promptly did a quick check: robe, armour, pistol, webbing, tools, data slate, Bob…

Bob’s missing. Bugger.

“We’re alive, unharmed, and…” I froze as a deep, unsettling groan reverberated through whatever structure we are in.

“I vote we find out where we are and how to get back?” I stated, glancing around nervously.

“Agreed/Concurrent statement: Agreed.”

Looking to my left I spot the door, drawing my pistol, I gesture for HK to take position.

The Alpha steps up to the other side of the door, I spot that the door is kept from shutting, slipping my fingers into the gap I took a firm grip on the door, nodding to HK I yanked the door open as best I could before it wedged, the Alpha slipped through the gap despite my initial belief it was too narrow.

“Statement: the corridor is clear Master,” the Alpha reported.

I grunted eloquently, then adjusted my body to get better leverage on the door, this time forcing it far enough to allow our passage.

Sliding through I glanced up and down the corridor, noting that there was still light even if there was a general feel of disrepair.

Looking over my shoulder, I note Mandisa and Karen step into the corridor, looking back to HK I nod to him, indicating for him to move up.

We move up in silence, other than the periodic groans of the structure around us, the doors we pass offer little clue as to our location, some are sealed by melted seams, some are fail safed from a lack of power, some are jarred or bent partly open revealing severe damage on the other side or simply blocked by debris, a precious few are open or do open on to empty rooms.

HK stops suddenly as we reach a cross passage, “Concerned Statement: Master?”

His tone instantly has our undivided attention, I follow his gaze to a Thallax sized robot on the floor, my first thought is we might be on an AdMech ship but something about the synthetic body is disquieting, it’s design is too sleek and, for want of a better term, Modern.

HK kicks the robot onto it’s back and the bottom falls out of my stomach...

“Man of Iron.”  
===================================================================

I cautiously approach the fallen synthetic, taking care to not obstruct Karen’s line of fire as I kneel beside the robot to examine it.

Unlike most of AdMech I don’t think AI are inherently Evil, rather I think Mankind’s development of the Men of Iron was the equivalent of “Digging Too Deep” and their subsequent corruption once psykers appeared and the Warp was discovered, was the slumbering Balrog we had disturbed.

And unlike most of the Imperium, AdMech knows how Mankind really defeated the Men of Iron.

ScrapCode.

I’m not sure which terrifies me more, running into a functioning Man of Iron or inadvertently picking up something with active ScrapCode.

The pair of holes in the head and chest indicate that this one at least isn’t going anywhere and hasn’t had a hope to for a long time, standing up I look to HK, “this one’s been dead for some time, though that raises the question…”

“Conclusion: Is it a boarder, or one of the crew?” HK concluded.

Looking into the cross passage I see two more fallen robots and a lot of scorch marks in the walls, but no dropped weapons.

“Someone cleaned up afterwards,” Karen noted, moving to the far side of the cross section.

The remains continue down the side corridor.

“This is a bad idea,” I pointed out, “but the trail of bodies probably leads into the main system sections, so we should probably follow them.”

“Sarcastic agreement: you are right Master, that is a bad idea,” HK replied.

“It’s probably our best bet though,” Mandisa reposted.

“Come on,” I ordered, starting down the side corridor.

==========================================

It took an hour to find the bridge.

The ship is built around a cathedral like hollow space, subdivided into three massive decks and each deck is divided into between five and eleven compartments. A quick look around as we climbed those decks showed the central space to be a massive landing bay backed by hangars and garages of varying descriptions and contents. The deck below was dedicated to the repair and maintenance of ground vehicles while the upper deck was the same for the air and voidcraft carried aboard.

“Why would AI build the bridge on top of the ship?” Mandisa asked as we climbed yet another set of stairs, “Wouldn’t it be more logical to be in the centre of the ship?”

“Pretty sure the early MoI fleet was designed by humans,” I replied as I opened the hatch, “besides, there’s a rather large hangar in the centre of this ship which kinda prevents that… phwor…” the air released as the hatch opened was pretty pungent.

“It seems the ventilation wasn’t working up there,” Karen observed.

“Sarcastic observation: it stinks,” HK added.

I glared down at the pair, as cool as Cogboy Techno Voodoo was sometimes I did regret not wearing my helmet. Like today, for example.

The command level was a mess.

The ceiling had caved in on what looked like a set of command consoles, the far door had been blasted in, blast marks all over the place, wrecked MoI everywhere...

01000001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00101110 00101110

I glanced around at the faint burst of binary, shrugging it off. I move into the command bridge and take a closer look around.

1000001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100010 01101111 01101111 01110100 00101110 00101110 00101110

I glanced around again, meeting HK’s eyes for a second, I nodded, he raised his weapon and started off to check the other side of the bridge.

01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00101110 00101110 00101110

This time I’m distracted by something else, a large spherical module on the chart table with several wires plugged into it.

01000001 01101101 01100010 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01100001 01110100 01110101 01110011 00111111

I walked over to the football sized object, it was the only still fully functional piece of technology on the bridge, it vaguely resembled the portable Data Cores AdMech sometimes used, like on that dig to Kronus where I first met Karen only smaller and, probably, more advanced.

01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00101110 00101110 00101110

Continuing around the table I found a console several of the cables were plugged into, it was in standby mode.

01001100 01101111 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101111 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100010 01110011 01110100 01110010 01110101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00101110 00101110

The console boots up the instant I touch the screen, though it’s a little sluggish to resume operations.

01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00101110 00101110 00101110

Once the core boots I’m greeted by scrawling lines of binary, it takes me a few moments to catch up to the rapidly moving numbers but as I process snippets of code, “Hk? Take a look at this.”

01000001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100001

Hk strode over and I moved aside to let him inspect the screen, “Disbelieving statement: Master, I believe this Data Core contains a program that was developed to counter ScrapCode.”

01010100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01000011 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100001

“Did it work?” I asked him, “I can’t quite read binary that fast.”

01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00100001 00100000 01000001 01101101 01100010 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101001 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100001

“Stunned Amazement: It appears that it did, Master,” Hk replied softly.

01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 00100001

That’ll be worth a fortune if we can get it back to the Imperium. “Let’s see if we can disconnect it,” I told HK, then turned to Karen and Mandisa, “see if you can find a communications console.”

01000001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100001

“Got it,” Karen replied, heaving her Phased Plasma Fusil on her shoulder, “come on Mandi.”

“Coming,” the strawberry Elfdar called and hurried after the busty Necrontyr.

01000001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100001

Together HK and I began the slow process of shutting down the core and disconnecting it from the central console, luckily it had its own battery and once it was free I rolled it over to HK.

“You carry it when we leave,” I instructed HK, stepping back from the central console.

01010000 01110010 01101111 01111000 01101001 01101101 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01000001 01101100 01100101 01110010 01110100 00100001

“Hey, this looks like the right one, help me move this,” Karen said to Mandi, approaching the console in question and getting a grip on debris lying on it.

“Ok,” Mandi replied, stepping up beside Karen and also taking a hold on the fallen girder.

01001111 01100010 01110011 01110100 01110010 01110101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01110101 01110010 01100010 01100101 01100100 00100001

“Be careful,” I warned the pair.

01001111 01100010 01110011 01110100 01110010 01110101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110110 01100101 01100100 00100001

“You got it?”

01000001 01101101 01100010 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01100101 01100100 00100001

“I’ve got it.”

01000011 01101111 01101101 01100010 01100001 01110100 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01101111 01100011 01101111 01101100 01110011 00100000 01000101 01101110 01100111 01100001 01100111 01100101 01100100 00100001

The girder was thrown clean out of the girls’ hands, both HK and I had to duck to avoid it, I heard Karen shout as I scrambled up and was sent to the floor again as Mandisa collided with me.

She rolled off me and I got a look at our assailant, a robot that looked like a real world take on a Star Wars tactical droid was currently trying to wrest Karen’s Plasma Fusil from her grip.

Rising I lifted the Dominion Rod off my belt, snapped my wrist to activate it and began the Canticle of Cessation as I closed to attack the Man of Iron.

The only explanation I have for what happened next is that it understood what I was saying.

It released Karen’s weapon, in fact it threw it at her, spun on its heel, ducked my first swing, dodged my second, punched me in the gut with enough force to lift me off the ground, then grabbed my ankle and threw me into the opposite wall.

HK took a few shots while my head was spinning, I realized it was trying to reach me as the world stopped spinning and I had been disarmed.

It finally had enough of dodging HK’s shooting and sprinted at me, I struggled to escape the pile of scrap I was embedded in and just as it reached out to throttle me a silver flash made me blink.

The Man of Iron slammed into me, collapsing the pile of scrap I was on, but instead of trying to strangle me it beat the stubs of its arms against my chest plate.

It stopped and took a moment to process it’s dismemberment, I took the opportunity to get me knee up and lever it away before it could try headbutting me.

As I did that my hand brushed something in the scrap pile, closing my hand on it I found it to be a pistol grip, the robot standing up forced my hand, I kicked it in the stomach to force it away, yanked out the weapon, aimed it and pulled the trigger in one motion.

The closest visual aid to the effect the weapon had on the Man of Iron I can think of is a cross between the Nano rifle from Red Faction Guerilla and a Necron Gauss weapon, as a rough wave of translucent amber energy erupted from the rusted barrel, enveloping the torso of the machine which then disintegrated, leaving the head free floating in front of me for a brief second before gravity exerted it’s cruel hold and it fell to the deck with the arms and lower half.

I absently glanced at the weapon, which vaguely resembled a cross between an Adrathic Destructor and an actual gun, then to my companions.

HK and Karen stood further back with their weapons raised while Mandi was a few feet beyond the remains of the MoI, her Power Sword drawn and the MoI’s hands at her feet.

“Mandi? First paradise world we reach, we’re finding a spa for you to be properly pampered after that save,” I promised her breathlessly as I clambered out of the scrap, when I looked back to my favourite strawberry Elfdar she had sheathed her sword and had this happy little smile that I knew as a sign she was holding in her joy.

“Assuring statement: the data core is undamaged, Master,” HK informed me, preempting my question.

“Good,” I nodded, “see if you can get that console working.”

After a few minutes, during which I attempted a few repair and maintenance psalms on my new pistol and Mandi inspected her sword for damage, the console was operational.

“Inquiring Announcement: Attention, to any void craft in range of this transmission, this is Skitarius Alpha HK-47, requesting assistance and evacuation from our current location.”

“I’ve just thought of something,” Mandisa whispered to me, “why does a seventeen thousand year old Man of Iron ship have functioning life support?”

I briefly considered that but shook my head, “don’t think too hard about it and be grateful.”

Mandi pouted and was about to continue when the console crackled to life.

“Skitarius HK-47, this is Executive Officer Anubis of the Strategos Command Ship, Pride of Centauri responding to your distress call. What is the disposition of yourself and other survivors?” a female voice said. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something about her voice set me on edge.

“Informative Reply: Myself, my superior and his two travelling companions are in good health, despite the efforts of a Man of Iron trapped in the wreckage,” HK replied to the woman.

“Are you able to access a nearby airlock or hangar?”

“A melee with a Man of Iron can’t have compromised the main hangar from here,” I pointed out quietly.

“Affirmative statement: we can access the main hangar, though we cannot guarantee functionality of atmospheric containment measures after millennia of neglect,” HK replied.

“Acknowledged, a shuttlepod has been dispatched to your location, further instructions will be provided once it has arrived and assessed the best docking location,” Anubis replied, the battered console to the left lit up and we could see a small dot lift off from a medium sized lump that was squished into a much, much larger vague pinecone shape.

I felt a part of me die in fright as I realized what that could only mean.

“We’re on a Space Hulk,” I announced faintly, “how wonderful.”

I’ll forgive Karen for almost dropping her Plasma Fusil.

“Scipio?”

“Yes Mandi?” I turned to look at her.

“What’s a Strategos?” Mandi asked curiously.

“Not sure,” I admitted, though the word Charlemagne came to mind for some reason, although I hope that’s wrong, “any idea HK?”

“Uninformative reply: I apologize but I only know that word is connected to Project: Charlemagne,” HK replied apologetically.

And there goes any hope of the Universe not shitting on me any further, “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Karen asked, lightly concerned.

“Project: Charlemagne was AdMech’s one attempt to reconstruct a Golden Age AI, the Titular Charlemagne, it was a total failure and is the main reason AdMech is rabidly Anti-AI,” I explained, as anti-Marsist as I am I’m going to pay attention when they warn not to meddle with shit like that.

“Why? What was wrong?” damn your insatiable curiosity Mandi.

“Charlemagne had been infected with three different strains of Scrapcode, the attempt to recombine the pieces led to the three strains reactivating and AdMech’s containment measures were overwhelmed in seconds. Charlemagne was a Warmind-class Strategic Defence AI, although dedicated to defending Mars it could access defence assets across the Sol system, the Scrapcode ravaging it caused the fragments to engage a scorched Earth protocol and deploy the remaining defence assets against the surface of Mars, the only good news was the vying fragments confused the targeting data and none of the populated areas were hit except the server facility. What little terraformed parts of Mars had survived the Old Night were reduced to radioactive dust bowls in seconds,” I explained, my mood dark.

“I can see why the toaster fuckers would hate AI after that,” Karen observed.

“So where does the Strategos come into this?” Mandi asked.

“I can only assume they’re a related project to Warminds,” I admitted after a moment, unable to come up with a better explanation… unless Mars had encountered a Strategos in the past?

“Inquiry: does that mean we’re still accepting their offer of rescue, Master?” HK asked, watching the blip moving closer with every second.

“We’re on a Hulk, we’ve little chance of finding edible food here, much less hygiene facilities, and it’s usually best to seek safety in numbers on a Hulk so we’re kinda out of options,” I surmised.

“So what for the AI?”

“Wait for the AI,” I confirmed.

Something told that this may be the most normal day I’d have in a long time.


	10. Arc 1 Chapter 10 Don't shoot the messanger

Spyglass pov:  
I used to be a person, now I am a combat droid. Virian is the same as me, but now he is a ship AI. Wily also shares the same story, but he’s an Ork now. And here I am, about to meet the two last people of notice aboard the ship, one of which was likely the source of the disturbance that let me leave Virians’ plasma cannon sight. And man, the place is busted! Crates disorganized, raw material everywhere and in the corner is my destination...  
As far as first impressions go, they are complete opposites of each other:  
Zenith and his girlfriend Anubis, if they can be called such.  
Zenith is a flipping massive mech that is busy rampaging in a sealed hangar nearby, and Anubis a human sized one. with a very caring personality  
Zenith is male, Anubis is a woman.   
Zenith is busy making a mess in his room and Anubis immediately started a conversation.   
And now she is sending me on a fetch quest of all things...

”Sure, I’ll go... but are you sure I’m the best man for the job?”  
”You are the only man available.”  
”What about all those drones I passed on the way” As friendly as she is, I was starting to be weary.  
”They won’t do. While they can do simple tasks, they aren't contact material” She said pointing at one dron walking with a crate in a circle.  
”Fair. I’ll go. Anything you can tell me about these new guys?” Knowing my luck, another batch of robo people.  
”Four of them. A Skitarius HK-47, his master and two companions of his'' HK? What is it, a KOTOR reference?  
”If they are what I assume they are, it’s gonna end badly.” Skitarii = Mechanicum. Mechanicum hates AIs.  
”Stop whining! If what I assume is correct, one of them knows stuff about machinery and he can help Zenith calm down!”  
”Can I have anything to defend myself? I didn’t get anything from the armory.”  
She wordlessly pointed at a half opened crate on my left.  
”Uh... thanks? I’ll try to not break them?  
“Please just hurry”  
Well, weapons are weapons. I grabbed a laser pistol, a rifle and a couple of power packs. The shuttle that was waiting for me was spacious. At first I assumed it to be a drop-ship of some kind. I didn’t really have to do anything during the trip, Anubis programmed an autopilot. All I could do was sit around and watch out of a window. Space is beautiful, even if you’re orbiting an amalgam of space junk. 5 minutes of flying later, the shuttle begins a docking sequence and I start preparing myself.

”Pistol loaded, rifle ready to be grabbed from the back, It’s now or never... ”  
”Remember! First impressions are everything!” Suddenly rang in my sound receivers  
”Holy shit, how long were you on comms?”  
”All this time! You’re taking too long!”  
”I thought you left me hanging! Either way I’m about to meet them.”  
”I know. Good luck! I hope they can help him...”  
And so with those words of encouragement I opened the shuttle door and got a first look at the new arrivals. Two men in mechanicus clothes, I assume the one heavily augmented is the skitarii. The techpriest near him was very... un-augmented... He had a great mustache though. And his companions... A pink skinned and curvy girl and Next to her was a tall, very busty pale skinned woman whose figure resembled a wet dream’s wet dream. Pink girl had knife ears and the other had apparel that almost screamed Necron... if the Necrons wore clothes, that is...  
”What the fu...?” I started  
”Surprised statement: Hello Artificial Intelligence! It is good to know you are capable of speech” Wow he even sounds like HK.  
”Holy hell, you even sound like HK”  
”How the Fuck do you know about KOTOR?” The techpriest asked suspiciously.  
”How would you know about Star Wars in the first place!”  
”Scipio? I think introductions are in order” The pink eldar cut in and, wow she sounds like an angel.  
”Right, thank you Mandi... Ekhm. I am Magus Scipio Britannicus, this is HK-47 and my two girlfriends, Mandisa and Karen”  
”Nice to meet you?” Quietly asked the eldar girl, now identified as Mandisa  
”Greetings” Said Karen.  
”Well then, hello, I am Spyglass and I’m a digitized human mind, now that you know my story, let’s get inside so we can start heading to home base.”  
”YOU’RE A WHAT?” This is going to take a while, isn’t it?

10 minutes later...  
”So let me get this straight... You’re a human from early millenium 3, who somehow woke up on this space hulk?” Officially Scipo became my favourite tech priest.  
”No, I woke up on my own ship, which has already crashed into this one”  
”I kinda want to ask, how does it feel to have a completely mechanical body?” And he’s nice and understanding to me!  
”You know that feeling when you hit your elbow and you temporarily lose feeling in your arm? This, but over everything.”  
”Ough, That must feel terrible”   
”Really Scipio? Don’t forget I was pretty much the same as him.” Karen interrupted our discussion What does she mean she was the same?  
”Do you mind Scipio? No offense to the ladies, but I assume they are not human. Right?”  
”Right, I didn’t mention that... Mandi is half eldar and her father is Magnus the Red...” HER FATHER IS WHO? ”...and Karen is a Necrontyr.” AND A NECRON?  
”I... think i need to lie down for this...”  
”Confused statement: As a mechanical entity, lying down would make no difference to your processing power.” He is surprisingly literal...  
”HK, it’s a figure of speech.” Thank you Scipio.  
”Either way, I think it’s time you board the shuttle and we get back to the main ship...”  
”HEY SPYGLASS!” Anubis on comms once again put me out of balance  
”Bloody hell Anubis... Next time maybe don’t scream into the communicator?”  
”It’s taking you too long! Zenith broke through another bulkhead and even Virian is starting to worry!”  
”We’re done talking and are getting aboard the shuttle. Speaking of, How’s the grumpy ship?”  
”He and Wily came to an agreement! He will move in with us!” Well, that one problem solved... Wait.  
”Wily is going to what!?!”  
”Who is Wily?”  
”An Ork Mekboy who apparently used to be a human.” Her flat monotone was really depressing.  
”Confused Question: FUCKING WHAT?”

A minute later we’re aboard and flying. Mandisa and Karen are talking to one another, Hk is still confused and Scipio and I continue our talk.  
”The terminals we had available weren’t precise on the size of this thing.”  
”I know! It’s so big, the journey between these hangars took 5 minutes!”  
”Since the shuttle is moving at a standard velocity, it must mean that the hulk is at least 50 kilometers!”  
”We’ve barely explored a tenth! Who knows what more we can find!”  
”There are more pressing matters right now, Spy!” Anubis once again joined in  
”I assume it’s about your Boyfriend?”  
”YES! And it isn’t something to take lightly, If Zenith breaks through all bulkheads, he may very well break the hulk apart! With us still on it!”  
”This is troubling...”  
”Just wait till you see the damage”  
”What damage?”  
”Yeah. Apparently she lured him into some sort of fortified storage and he’s been trying to get out.”  
The shuttle began to descend into the Hangar. Doors open and our group of five begin taking first steps.  
”Spyglass?”  
”Yeah?”  
”Do you have some food aboard? I’m getting hungry.” Scipio asked, “the ship we ended up on was from the IronWar and even vac sealed rations don’t stay good for twenty thousand years.”  
”Me too” Mandisa and Karen added at the same time  
”Hmm... Anubis? Is there something to eat for the fleshies?”  
”You’re asking about FOOD? Storage has enough standard sized meals that can last a military regiment for over a year. Now please hurry, he needs help!”  
”What kind of help would he need”  
”You’ll see. Welcome aboard the Pride of Centauri. If you can help me fix Zenith we can yet salvage the entire situation.”  
”Ok, we’re entering. Don’t get spooked.”  
”Why would we... BY THE OMNISSIAH’S TITANIC BOLLOCKS! WHAT HAPPENED HERE?”


	11. Story undergoing a rewrite

Sorry to report this, but this story is getting redone. Some reviews on different platforms brought attention to the many errors we have done during the making of the story, such as introducing to many character too soon and not giving backstories. Now, we're doing it from the ground up, with some changes, both in characters and planned timeline. You can find the new story here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28529919


End file.
